With a disappointing stale mate in Bail over Global Warming, and some stupid announcements like compulsory ISP based filtering of adult material online, the progressive values of the Labor government have been sorely missing in the first two months of government. Today comes new challenges, which could bring a diplomatic crisis with Australia’s second largest trading partner.
The Federal Court of Australia has just ruled that the killing of whales in Australia’s territorial waters is illegal, since the area was deemed a sanctuary in 2000 and that the Japanese company "Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd" is in breach of Australian domestic law protecting the animals.
The Court acknowledge that unless the ship docked at an Australian port, it would be hard, if not impossible for civilian authorities to act on this decision and prosecute the whalers, saying that "it is up to the Federal Government" to act in a proactive manner, and go after the whalers, with a military type intervention.
Australians are now waiting to see whether the new Labor Government will enforce the Federal Court's ruling against the Japanese whalers, and send the Australian Navy to arrest them. Greenpeace is tracking the whalers as they try to kill. They have been trying to relay the information to the Australian Government, which has to this point refused to take the information.
Justice Jim Allsop today said unless restrained, the Japanese company would continue to "kill, injure, take and interfere with" Antarctic minke whales and fin whales.
So far no word if the government will act, if they do, the diplomatic protests from Japan will be deafening, Australians have already been accused of being racist, insensitive to the "cultural significance" of whale meat in Japan. Of course however the whale kill is for "scientific purposes"
Is this the first big progressive test of the Rudd Labor Government? Will they pass, watch this space.